Antigone
Greek Drama: Out of Ritual
David Adams Leeming
You probably never thought of religious services as being forms of drama, but in ancient Greece
they were. Greek drama grew out of religious rituals honoring Dionysos, the god of wine and
fertility. During these old celebrations, worshipers would dance around the altar of the god of
wine and ecstasy, singing hymns to the wild, passionate accompaniment of the flute.
At some point during the sixth century B.C., these Dionysian celebrations became an annual
festival held in Athens at a large outdoor amphitheater. Eventually, the dancing choruses of
worshipers began competing for prizes (a bull or a goat). Tradition has it that a man named
Thespis transformed these hymns into songs that still honored Dionysos but also told the story of
a famous hero or even another god. Then Thespis added another innovation: One chorus member
would step away from the others to play the part of that hero or god. This actor wore a mask (like
the one on the right) and entered into a dialogue with the chorus. Drama as we know it was born
when the playwright Aeschylus added a second individual actor to the performance, creating the
possibility of conflict. (Thespis is immortalized in our word thespian, which refers to an actor or
actress.)
By the end of the fifth century B.C., this annual festival, called the Dionysia, had become a fourday extravaganza. Public business was suspended; prisoners were released on bail. As many as
fourteen thousand spectators gathered in the open-air Theater of Dionysos to watch as
playwrights chosen by the city magistrates competed for prizes in tragedy and comedy. After an
opening day of traditional choral hymns, three dramatists in each category presented their plays
over the next three days. Each morning, one of the playwrights presented three tragedies and a
satyr play, and that afternoon, another playwright presented a comedy. The tragedies, which had
heroic characters and unhappy endings, were serious treatments of religious and mythic
questions. The satyr plays were comic and even lewd treatments of the same themes. The
comedies differed from the tragedies in having ordinary people as characters and happy endings.
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Standard Definitions of Tragedy
Tragedy depicts the downfall of a noble hero or heroine, usually through some combination of
hubris, fate, and the will of the gods. The tragic hero's powerful wish to achieve some goal
inevitably encounters limits, usually those of human frailty (flaws in reason, hubris, society), the
gods (through oracles, prophets, fate), or nature. Aristotle says that the tragic hero should have a
flaw and/or make some mistake (hamartia). The hero need not die at the end, but he / she must
undergo a change in fortune. In addition, the tragic hero may achieve some revelation or
recognition (anagnorisis--"knowing again" or "knowing back" or "knowing throughout" ) about
human fate, destiny, and the will of the gods. Aristotle quite nicely terms this sort of recognition
"a change from ignorance to awareness of a bond of love or hate."
Tragic Heroes (protagonists of tragedies)
The tragic hero is neither thoroughly good nor thoroughly evil but a combination.
The tragic effect will be stronger if the hero is "better than we are," in
that he is of higher than ordinary moral worth. Such a man is shown as
suffering a change in fortune from happiness to misery because of a mistaken
act, to which he is led by his hamartia (his "effort of judgment") or, as it
is often literally translated, his tragic flaw.
One common form of hamartia in Greek tragedies was hubris, that "pride" or
overwhelming self-confidence which leads a protagonist to disregard a divine
warning or to violate an important law
A tragic hero has the potential for greatness but is doomed to fail. He is
trapped in a situation where he cannot win. He makes some sort of tragic
flaw, and this causes his fall from greatness. Even though he is a fallen
hero, he still wins a moral victory, and his spirit lives on.
In short, summary form:
Tragic heroes are
_ Born into nobility
_ Responsible for their own fate
_ Endowed with a tragic flaw
_ Doomed to make a serious error in judgment
Eventually, tragic heroes
_ Fall from great heights or high esteem
_ Realize they have made an irreversible mistake
_ Faces and accepts death with honor
_ Meet a tragic death or end
For all tragedies the audience is affected by pity and/or fear that leads to catharsis, or
a purging of the emotions (ladies—think about how good you feel after bawling your
way through The Notebook)
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Specific Background Notes
General Background for Antigone
• According to Greek mythology, Dionysos was the son of Zeus (chief of the gods) and the
mortal Semele, a daughter of Kadmos (or Cadmus). To protect Dionysos fro the wrath of
Zeus's wife, Hera, he was taken as a child to Mount Nysa, where mountain nymphs took
care of him. The cult of Dionysos celebrated his half-mortal, half-divine identity as well
as the annual cycle of death and rebirth. It was thought that Dionysos not only freed
worshipers from the restraints of reason, but also inspired poets and artists to divine
creativity. As the Dionysian rituals became associated with dramatic productions,
celebrations in the god's honor became more formal and ceremonial.
•
Sphinxes were part of the mythologies of many Mediterranean and Middle Eastern
cultures; each was a mix of a lion with either another animal or a human. Perhaps the
best-known sphinx is the Great Sphinx, a monument outside Giza, Egypt. Some 240 feet
long and 66 feet high, the Great Sphinx was already an antiquity by the time of
Sophocles, having been built around 2500 BCE. King Khafre may have had it
constructed; the Sphinx's face is said to bear his likeness.
•
The city of Delphi was home to the chief temple of the god Apollo. Not only individuals
but also city governments consulted the oracle there. The oracle was believed to speak
the words of Apollo while in a frenzy; priests would interpret the oracle's speech for the
many who came to Delphi for counsel.
•
Critic Bernard Knox points out that funeral rites in ancient Greece were "the duty and
privilege of the women." As Antigone and Ismene are the last survivors of Oedipus's
family," . . . it seems to Antigone that Creon's decree is aimed specifically at them. . . .
She takes it for granted Ismene will help her and turns . . . contemptuously and harshly
against her when she refuses."
The Greeks believed that the spirit of a dead person could enter Hades only after the body
had been purified and buried. Until the proper rites were performed, the person hovered
at the gate of Hades, neither alive nor completely dead.
•
•
Women in ancient Greece had to depend on male relatives for support. Girls married
when they were thirteen or fourteen, and their husbands often were more than twice their
age. Women in wealthy households were secluded, had no legal rights, and did not inherit
property. If a woman's husband died, a man in her family, her guardian, would try to find
her another husband.
Background for Scene 1 and Ode 1
• The original audience for Antigone might have read between the lines in Creon's first
speech to the Chorus (lines 21- 35). They might have seen some political commentary.
Athens was a democracy, but there were memories of its previous rulers, who worked
hard to preserve their family identities-and their family welfare. Even in the democracy,
aristocratic families were known to promote their own interests. Thus, it would have been
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important for the audience to hear Creon distancing himself from Polyneices, a rebellious
family member, and decrying nepotism.
Background for Scene 2 and Ode 2
• Creon's comment about his nieces (lines 148-150) underscores Ismene's role as a foil to
Antigone. Ismene's main purpose in the play is to emphasize, through her own weakness,
Antigone's strength.
•
The drawing on page 712 is a reproduction of a frieze, a sculptured band that winds
around a building. This frieze was probably part of a Greek temple and sculpted out of a
part of the building that served no structural purpose, but instead was purely decorative.
•
The curse that afflicts the royal family is a thread that runs throughout the play. In Ode 2,
the Chorus identifies Antigone's suffering as a consequence of the sin and downfall of
Oedipus.
•
Notice that the language of Ode 2 is more metaphorical and alliterative than that of the
dialogue. The ode also contains several historical and mythological allusions, whereas the
dialogue is more plainly spoken.
Background for Scene 3 and Ode 3
• Although in Scene 1 Creon claims to represent the State, in Scene 3 he refuses to accept
the idea that his subjects support Antigone. "And the City proposes to teach me how to
rule?" he demands (line 103). Finally, he gives up all pretense of representation and
declares, "The State is the king!" (line 107).
•
Literary critic Bernard Knox writes, "This autocratic phrase puts the finishing touch to
the picture Sophocles is drawing for his audience: Creon has now displayed . . . the
characteristics of the tyrant, "a despotic ruler who seizes power and retains it by
intimidation and force." It is important to realize that Athenian audiences despised tyrants
because tyrants ruled Athens for about a hundred years before a democratic government
was established in 508 BCE.
Background for Scene 4 and Ode 4
• Antigone holds to a classical Greek view of the afterlife: Although it is a place where
there are "no more tears" (line 32) and where there may be some reunion with those who
have gone before (lines 61-62), it also is a place without warmth and music (lines 9-10), a
place of darkness (line 32), and a place of "thin ghosts" (line 60). Indeed, part of
Antigone's heroism lies in her willingness to consign herself to a place of such mixed
happiness and gloom.
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•
Mythology background—these stories come up in these scenes. Try Googling them or
consulting another resource that might give you some general information about the
stories.
• Acheron
•
Niobe
•
Tantalos
•
Danae
•
Lycurgos
•
The Muses
•
King Phineus & Cleopatra
Background for Scene 5 and Exodos
• Most ancient Greek tragedies observed three unities-unity of time (with all action in the
play unfolding in one day), unity of place (with all action occurring in one place), and
unity of action (with all events an important part of developing or resolving the conflict).
• In his Literary History of Greece, Robert Flacelière writes, "What was genuinely new in
the plays of Sophocles . . . was their greater emphasis on the development of individual
character. . . . His characters are no longer simply the playthings of the gods. . . . They act
in accord with definite ideas of their own. . . . all of Sophocles' protagonists display . . .
unshakable will power. . . ."
•
Flacelière suggests that Antigone, rather than Creon, is the play's best example of
inflexible will power. Do you think Sophocles believes "inflexible will power" to be a
tragic flaw or a virtue?
•
Notice the repetition of a burial in the Exodos. Burials are representative of familial and
religious loyalty. This is the basic extended metaphor of Antigone. By the end of the
play, Creon will seek his own burial.
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Literary Terms
Terms
tragedy
Meaning
Example from play
tragic hero
catharsis
tragic flaw (hamartia)
hubris
prologue
chorus (choragos)
episode
ode
foil
allusion
exodos
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Vocabulary you will need for the play
Let me suggest that you put these into your own words. The dictionary definition, when copied,
is rarely useful because when you go back to it, it’s hard to make sense of it every time.
•
repulse
•
deference
•
sated
•
malicious
•
swagger
•
somberly
•
comprehensive
•
piety
•
senile
•
vigil
•
sententiously
•
transgress
•
lithe
•
wrath
•
insolence
•
calamity
•
waver
•
recoils
•
transcends
•
defile
•
autocratic
Study Guide Questions
Prologue and Parodos
o
How are Antigone and Ismene contrasted in the first lines of the play?
o
What do their interactions reveal about their respective characters?
o
What is the gist of Ismene's argument against aiding Antigone as she explains it?
o
Which of Antigone's last lines are meant to produce the most emotional effect? Why?
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o
How does the Parodos differ in tone and content from the Prologue?
Episode I and Ode I
o
In Creon's first words to the Chorus, what were the "storms" that threatened to destroy the
Ship of State?
o
What reasons does Creon give for not allowing Polyneices to be buried?
o
How does the end of Creon's speech differ from the beginning?
o
How does the Chorus feel about Creon's commands? How do you know this?
o
What do we learn about Creon's character?
o
How does the arrival of the Sentry affect this scene?
o
What news is the Sentry reluctant to deliver?
o
How does the Sentry's announcement-there is evidence that Creon's command has been
disobeyed-affect the action of the plot?
o
After reading the first three verses of Ode1, state the main idea of the first three verses.
o
On the basis of the final verse of Ode 1, why do you think the Chorus supports Creon.
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Episode II and Ode II
o
What does Creon's reaction suggest about his relationship with Antigone?
o
Why has Antigone violated Creon's decree?
o
How do you feel about Creon's accusation of Ismene?
o
What is Creon's main point and what is Antigone's?
o
We see contrasting images of Ismene (one from the Chorus and one from Creon). What
are they?
o
In this scene, Ismene wants to join Antigone in the death sentence. From what you know
of her, what do you think is her motivation?
o
From what you know of Antigone, why do you think she rejects Ismene and excludes her
from the death sentence?
Episode III and Ode III
o
What is ironic about Creon's advice regarding Antigone?
o
Creon makes a short speech. Describe the kind of leader that would say these words.
o
According to his words, what would you say Creon fears most?
o
What is Haimon's main argument? What is Haimon's tone?
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o
Why does the Chorus refuse to take sides?
o
Haimon expresss an opinion. How is his opinion like Antigone's? What did she say that
was similar?
o
How has Haimon's attitude changed from the beginning of this scene to the end?
Episode IV and Ode IV
o
In Antigone's first lines of Scene 4, is she showing regret? What is the tone and mood of
the beginning of this scene?
o
Whose fate does Antigone compare to her own?
o
What does Antigone say is the cause of her death?
o
What does Antigone look forward to in death?
o
What curse does she put on Creon?
o
Do you think the "family curse" deserve to be mentioned in this scene?
o
Creon says that his hands are clean. Does he believe this or is he posturing?
o
What is the subject of Ode 4? How would you summarize it?
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Episode V and Exodos
o
What is the irony in Episode V?
o
Notice the alliteration used by Teiresias and Creon. Teiresias uses alliteration in his aphorism.
Why does Creon use alliteration in his response?
o
What does Teiresias predict?
o
At what point of Episode 5 does Creon change his tone and attitude? When does he give in?
o
Why does Creon decide to save Antigone?
o
What words does Creon repeat in the Exodos? What does this repetition suggest about Creon's
state of mind?
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